MANCHESTER, England - He says he's just become used to it. But 45-year-old Andy Foster, a waiter at Grenache Restaurant in Worsley, near Manchester, UK, has autism, and he has to work to support his mother, who has Alzheimer's disease. Foster only started working at Grenache three weeks ago.

On Wednesday, a group of customers at Grenache complained to the owner, Mike Jennings, asking, in essence, "why would you give this man a job?" On Thursday, the restaurant posted a response on social media.

Owners, Karen Deveney and Jennings responded to several restaurant supporters on their Facebook page. “Cringed as I was posting this as I didn't want people to think we were being rude... But then I thought, we need to stand up for what we believe in! Our staff are our foundation and this is our way of standing up for them! #equalopportunities Love, Karen and Mike”

The couple went on to respond to a fan inquiring about what she missed and what was said to the waiter. Karen and Mike responded: “we haven't published what was said... Nor do we want to believe that our waiter was treated like that. It's happening all too often and we're fed up of it! Serving the public is a hard task. Every single customer that walks through the doors is entitled to their opinion. If a customer didn't like their meal, we'd listen and take their comments on board. But when their 'feedback' is down right rude, upsetting and discriminative, we have to take a stand! It's 2016 for crying out loud!!”

The post has gained thousands of "likes" and comments as the message of support for Foster has been spread across the internet.

Thoughts on an incident which occurred last night....Totally unacceptable.Strongly worded but we need to get our point across.#equalopportunities